Author Archives: imogen

Book Review: Diary of a Short-Sighted Adolescent by Mircea Eliade (Romania)

Translated by Christopher Monocrieff I didn’t realise until after I had read it, but the “Diary of a Short-Sighted Adolescent” was written in the 1920s when Mircea Eliade was just 17, although it was not published in Romania until 1989, three years after the author’s death. The English translation folllowed much later, in 2016. It’s …

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Estonian Artist Konrad Mägi

“I am a Son of the North, and Everything that I am is but a Fraction of its Population and Wilderness” I visited Dulwich Picture Gallery in South-East London to catch a show collecting the work of respected Estonian modernist painter Konrad Mägi (1878-1925), who is little-known in the UK. Mostly comprising landscapes, this exhibition …

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Book Review: The Crossing by Pajtim Statovci (Albania)

Translated from Finnish by David Hackston Back to Albania for a depressing little book written by Pajtim Statovci, who lives in Finland, but was born in Kosovo. The novel was published in Finnish in 2016 as ‘Tiranan Sydan‘ (‘Heart of Tirana’), and first appeared in English translation in 2019. It’s a beautifully written odyssey though, …

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Film Review, Katanga: Dance of the Scorpions (Burkina Faso)

In late November last year I went to London’s BFI to watch a 2024 movie, Katanga: Dance of the Scorpions, shot in Burkina Faso, and directed by Dani Kouyaté. The coup-beleaguered, West African state of Burkina Faso might seems an unlikely hub for the film industry, but for many years it has hosted the Panafrican …

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